Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues saxophone player Eddie Shaw. Enjoy!
Eddie Shaw - Little By Little
"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."
Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation
News and Opinion
Joe is on vacation this week, the Weekend Edition team will be filling in for the following: News, Greens and Hosting. Thanks for stopping by and reading.
Compiled by: Johnny the Conqueroo
Contributors:
janis b
Funkygal
enhydra lutris
Johnny the Conqueroo
Sanders Sees Clinton Camp Attacks as Sign that 'Something Must Be Working'
'Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president,' says Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Link Submitted by: JtC
In a move viewed as further evidence of Sen. Bernie Sanders' continued momentum in the polls and among potential voters in the 2016 presidential election, some Hillary Clinton supporters have gone on the offense against the self-described democratic socialist.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a Clinton backer, launched what The Hill described as "the sharpest attack yet" on Sanders in a television appearance on Thursday.
"Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president," she told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
McCaskill assailed Sanders for having "an extreme message" and being "unrealistic," while complaining that the media were "not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they are giving to certainly Hillary Clinton and the other candidates."
This Is Bernie Sanders' Plan to Beat Hillary Clinton
And without any attack ads.
Link Submitted by: janis b
It's fortunate for Hillary Clinton that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent socialist from Vermont who is challenging her for the Democratic presidential nomination, despises and eschews negative advertising. That's because the political consulting firm that Sanders has retained to advise his campaign has a well-developed expertise in devising attack ads. Earlier this year, this outfit, Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, won a Pollie award from the American Association of Political Consultants for creating the best Democratic congressional ad of 2014. The spot slammed Dave Trott, a Republican running for a congressional seat in Michigan, for making millions of dollars by foreclosing on residents of his state, and it focused on the harrowing eviction of a 101-year-old Detroit woman. Trott survived this assault and handily won the seat in the Republican district, but the Washington Post called the commercial "one of the most brutal attack ads you'll ever see."
The Sanders campaign has no plans to hurl these kinds of ads at Clinton. As Tad Devine, the veteran political operative who leads this firm and a longtime adviser to Sanders, notes, mudslinging is not part of the campaign strategy that Sanders and his advisers have crafted. There won't even be one speck of dust directly tossed at Clinton. But, Devine tells me, implicit negative messages aimed at Clinton will certainly be "embedded" in Sanders' advertising and social media messaging.
Sanders does have an overall plan on how to beat Clinton. As Devine explains, it goes something like this: Raise enough money to devote significant resources to building a full operation and maintaining a media presence in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Nevada and South Carolina. At the same time, develop a basic foundation for campaign organizations in other states, so if Sanders fares well in the initial contests, these preliminary outfits can quickly be built out. Devine and other Sanders advisers estimate they will need to raise $40-$50 million by the Iowa caucuses to be in such a position, and they claim Sanders is on track to hit that mark, mainly with thousands and thousands of low-dollar contributions. (Sanders has drawn crowds of thousands at recent campaign events.) "I don't know if we can outright beat her in Iowa and New Hampshire," Devine says, "but we have a real shot at it in both places."
New York prison break convict Richard Matt shot and killed by police
Murderer who escaped from prison three weeks ago is shot and killed by police in upstate New York and police say they are in pursuit of second suspect
Link Submitted by: JtC
One of two convicted murderers who escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York has been shot and killed by police.
Richard Matt, the 49-year-old killer who broke out from Clinton Correctional Facility nearly three weeks ago with 35-year-old David Sweat, was killed by a gunshot wound, law enforcement sources told a number of news outlets.
According to reports, Matt was shot near Malone, New York, about 35 miles from the town of Dannemora, where the prison is located. Dozens of law enforcement vehicles were converging on an area south of Malone, 27 miles north-west of the Clinton Correctional Facility.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in Broome County in 2002.
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling
With 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v Hodges, justices determine right to marriage equality is protected under constitution in decision hailed as ‘victory of love’
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional.
In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Victory in the case – known as Obergefell v Hodges, after an Ohio man who sued the state to get his name listed on his late husband’s death certificate – capped years of campaigning by LGBT rights activists, high-powered attorneys and couples waiting decades for the justices to rule. It immediately led to scenes of jubilation from coast to coast, as campaigners, politicians and everyday people – gay, straight and in-between – hailed “a victory of love”.
The ruling, in which Justice Anthony Kennedy cast the deciding vote, means the number of states where gay marriage is legal will rise from 37 to 50.
The Perils of the Politics of Symbolism
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
The Confederate flag is in ignominious retreat, shunned by GOP presidential hopefuls and officeholders and banned from the shelves and catalogues of Wal-Mart, Sears and eBay. In hot pursuit, vowing to exorcize the demons of old Dixie, is a suddenly aroused array of Black preachers and politicians that have found new relevance in wake of the Charleston church massacre.
The slaughter of nine innocents by a white youth intent on fomenting race war has, at least temporarily, energized and elevated the politics of symbolism, by which great victories can be claimed without putting a dent in real structures of power. Dylann Roof’s rampage also reminds Black folks that the Republicans began replacing the Democrats as the White Man’s Party half a century ago, and have since provided a haven for all manner of white supremacists and their paraphernalia. Hillary Clinton, who has participated in the murder of many millions of Black, brown and yellow people but, like most of her ilk, has the good sense to avoid association with swastikas and Confederate insignia, will profit from the carnage at Emanuel A.M.E. The “Confederate” presence in the GOP makes the Democrats the “Black” party, by default, eliminating the need for Democrats to actually do anything of substance for Black people. The infinitely evil Ms. Clinton (“We came, we saw, he died”), who shares responsibility for the genocide of six million Congolese, becomes a “lesser” evil.
“The demand that South Carolina remove the ‘Stars and Bars’ from in front of the state capital building is wholly symbolic, directly affecting one pole and one piece of cloth.”
The atrocity in Charleston was meant to set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the total subjugation or physical elimination of Black people in the United States. Roof’s “manifesto” is quite clear on this. The killer is also aware that he is not so very different from the great mass of white people who, he writes, “run to the suburbs,” or those that propose the establishment of an all-white homeland in the “Northwest Front” to get away from Black people. Roof believed he had “no choice” but to try to instigate the final battle by committing a crime so vile, Blacks would be compelled to strike back (at who?), or that other whites would mount similar attacks, or both.
Angry White Male Terror in US More Deadly Than Jihad Since 9/11
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Remember back in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security '_trackEvent','download',');">warned (pdf) against the growth of homegrown terror arising from right-wing extremism? Remember how the howls of protest from the same right-wing politicians who dog-whistle the right-wing extremists into action were so loud that DHS took the report off its website and even disbanded the research unit that produced the report? Here’s Daryl Johnson, who headed the group at DHS that produced the report, talking in 2011:
When the right-wing report was leaked and people politicized it, my management got scared and thought DHS would be scaled back. It created an environment where my analysts and I couldn’t get our work done. DHS stopped all of our work and instituted restrictive policies. Eventually, they ended up gutting my unit. All of this happened within six to nine months after the furor over the report. Analysts then began leaving DHS. One analyst went to ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], another to the FBI, a third went to the U.S. Marshals, and so on. There is just one person there today who is still a “domestic terrorism” analyst.
Since our report was leaked, DHS has not released a single report of its own on this topic. Not anything dealing with non-Islamic domestic extremism—whether it’s anti-abortion extremists, white supremacists, “sovereign citizens,” eco-terrorists, the whole gamut.
China Blasts US for 'Brazen' Human Rights Abuses at Home and Abroad
In U.S., 'minority groups and Indigenous people are subject to unfairness in environment, election, health care, housing, and education,' China says
Link Submitted by: JtC
In a report that covers everything from police violence to income inequality to government surveillance, China has blasted the United States for its "grim problems of racial discrimination," use of "cruel tortures indiscriminately," and "terrible human rights record."
The lengthy report, carried by the official Xinhua news agency and issued on Friday in response to U.S. criticism of China's human rights record, says the U.S. is "haunted by spreading guns," while suffering from "serious racial bias...in the police and justice systems."
"On June 25 local time, the State Department of the United States released its country reports on human rights practices once again, making comments on the human rights situations in many countries while showing not a bit of regret for or intention to improve its own terrible human rights record," it reads. "Plenty of facts show that, in 2014, the U.S., a self-proclaimed human rights defender, saw no improvements in its existent human rights issues, but reported numerous new problems."
The Chinese report charges that "money is a deciding factor in the U.S. politics, and the U.S. citizens' political rights were not properly protected." It also states that "minority groups and Indigenous people are subject to unfairness in environment, election, health care, housing, education and other fields."
Russia through the Saudi looking glass
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The latest bunch of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks as part of the half a million files relating to Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry contains a revealing document on an “arrangement of reciprocal support to the candidature of the Government of Russia to the Human Rights Council on the understanding that the Government of Russia would also extend its valuable support to the candidature of Saudi Arabia” in the elections to the body held in May 2013.
There is nothing earthshaking here, for sure, but it calls attention to the pragmatism that has characterized the relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Interestingly, the Syrian conflict didn’t come in the way of the above deal-making in 2013. The deal actually predates the rift between Riyadh and Washington following the commencement of direct talks between the US and Iran.
Against this backdrop, the Saudi assessments regarding Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to Russia last week fall into perspective. Writing in the Saudi establishment daily, Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya television, cautions against reading too much into MbS’s Russia visit.
Rashed acknowledges the Saudi disillusionment over the US’ Middle East policies and takes note that Riyadh has taken “an unusual step and decided to do the opposite” by boosting business ties with Russia in critical areas such as energy and nuclear and military technologies at a time when the US has imposed sanctions and is boycotting Russia.
US To Begin Invasion of Syria
US policymakers sign and date paper calling for the division, destruction, and US occupation of Syria.
Link Submitted by: JtC
Unbeknownst to the general public, their elected politicians do not create the policy that binds their national destiny domestically or within the arena of geopolitics. Instead, corporate-financier funded think tanks do - teams of unelected policymakers which transcend elections, and which produce papers that then become the foundation of legislation rubber stamped by "legislators," as well as the enumerated talking points repeated ad naseum by the corporate-media.
Such a policy paper has been recently written by the notorious US policy think-tank, the Brookings Institution, titled, "Deconstructing Syria: Towards a regionalized strategy for a confederal country." The signed and dated open-conspiracy to divide, destroy, then incrementally occupy a sovereign nation thousands of miles from America's shores serves as a sobering example of how dangerous and enduring modern imperialism is, even in the 21st century.
Pretext ISIS: US Poured Billions Into "Moderates" Who Don't Exist
The document openly admits that the US has provided billions in arming and training militants fed into the devastating and increasingly regional conflict. It admits that the US maintains - and should expand - operations in Jordan and NATO-member Turkey to provide even more weapons, cash, and fighters to the already catastrophic conflict.
It then recounts the rise of the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS), but fails to account from where its money, cash, and weapons came. It should be obvious to readers that if the United States has committed billions in cash, weapons, and training on multiple fronts to alleged "moderates" who for all intents and purposes do not exist on the battlefield, a state-sponsor of greater magnitude would be required to create and sustain ISIS and Al Qaeda's Al Nusra Front who Brookings admits dominates the "opposition" uncontested.
US May Be Looking to Extract Itself From the Ukraine Quagmire
The Ukraine crisis has not yielded the desired anti-Russian results for Washington and is unlikely to in the future. Meanwhile the dysfunctional country is a liability to any sponsor.
Link Submitted by: JtC
Two small news items have not received much attention recently, and yet they might be the signs of something big happening:
Poroshenko has fired the notorious head of the equally notorious Security Service of Ukraine or SBU: Valentin Nalivaichenko.
Sergei Ivanov, the powerful Deputy Prime Minister of Russia has stated that the U.S. and Russia have created a bilateral communications channel on the Ukraine run by Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, for the U.S. and Grigorii Karasin, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, for Russia. The official reason for that was “not to complicate” the already delicate “Normandy-format”.
So on one hand, we have Kerry and Nuland who came to Russia and who, by all accounts, got nothing of what they asked for but who are now getting a “communications channel”, while at the same time, the 100% U.S.-controlled Nalivaichenko, who is rumored to be an actual CIA agent recruited many years ago, is booted out by Poroshenko. Rumor also has it that Arsen Avakov, the Minister of Internal Affairs, will be next to be kicked out.
France attack: Man decapitated at factory near Lyon
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A van driver who was investigated for links to Islamist radicals has attacked a gas factory near the south-eastern city of Lyon, a French prosecutor says.
Yacine Sali, 35, caused an explosion by ramming his car into an area containing flammable liquids and was arrested at the scene, Francois Molins said.
Mr Sali's boss, the owner of a delivery firm, was found beheaded alongside flags containing Arabic inscriptions.
The attack put France back on to its highest terror alert.
Kuwait Shia mosque blast death toll 'rises to 25'
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The death toll from a suicide attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Kuwaiti capital has risen to at least 25, the interior ministry says.
Another 202 people were wounded, it added. Images circulating online show bodies on the mosque floor amid debris.
The blast hit the Imam Sadiq Mosque in a busy area to the east of Kuwait City.
An Islamic State- (IS) affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Tunisia attack on Sousse beach 'kills 37'
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
At least 37 people, mostly foreigners, have been killed and 36 injured in an attack on a beach in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse, according to the health ministry.
Video footage showed the body of a suspected gunman lying in a street.
Tunisians, Britons, Germans and Belgians and at least one Irish citizen are among the dead.
In March militants killed 22 people, mainly foreign tourists, in an attack on a museum in the capital Tunis.
How the NSA Started Investigating the New York Times’ Warrantless Wiretapping Story
Link Submitted by: JtC
Three days after the New York Times revealed that the U.S. government was secretly monitoring the calls and emails of people inside the United States without court-approved warrants, the National Security Agency issued a top-secret assessment of the damage done to intelligence efforts by the story. The conclusion: the information could lead terrorists to try to evade detection. Yet the agency gave no specific examples of investigations that had been jeopardized.
The December 2005 bombshell story, by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, set off a debate about the George W. Bush administration’s expansion of spying powers after the 9/11 attacks, and also about the Times editors’ decision to delay its publication for a year. White House officials had warned the Times that revealing the program would have grave consequences for national security.
The NSA’s damage assessment on the article — referred to as a “cryptologic insecurity” — is among the files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The memo recounts meetings in 2004 and 2005 in which administration officials disclosed “certain details of the special program to select individuals from the New York Times to dissuade them from publishing a story on the program at that time.”
The memo gives a general explanation of what terrorists might do in reaction to the information revealed. It was “likely” that terrorists would stop using phones in favor of mail or courier, and use encryption and code words. They could also plant false information, knowing the U.S. government was listening. But the leaked program had not “been noted in adversary communications,” according to the memo. It gave no specific examples of investigations or targets that had or might be impacted by the revelations.
Iraqi pilot flew military plane that crashed in Arizona
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
DOUGLAS, Ariz. (AP) — An Iraqi pilot who has been training in the United States for four years crashed in southern Arizona while flying an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, a spokesman for the Iraqi defense minister said Thursday.
"We have no word yet on his fate or the reason behind the crash," Brig. Gen. Tahseen Ibrahim told The Associated Press. "We are in contact with the Americans to get more details."
Ibrahim confirmed the pilot is Brig. Gen. Rafid Mohammed Hassan but said the pilot's fate still is not known. He said the rescue operation is difficult because the plane hit a gas pipeline in a rural area.
Hassan was the only person aboard when the plane went down during a Wednesday night training mission with the Arizona Air National Guard's 162nd Wing, the Guard said in a statement. It did not release further information about the pilot.
Humanist among machines
As the dreams of Silicon Valley fill our world, could the dowdy historian Arnold Toynbee help prevent a nightmare?
Link Submitted by: janis b
He was an expert in world civilisations who made the cover of Time magazine in 1947, praised for writing ‘the most provocative work of historical theory… since Karl Marx’s Capital’. But in September 1921, long before he was the most famous historian in the world, a young Englishman named Arnold Toynbee boarded the Orient Express in Constantinople, bound for London. Fresh from a nine-month posting as a war correspondent for The Manchester Guardian, Toynbee scribbled down reflections about the shadow side of progress in his notebook, while the Balkans passed silently outside his window. Modern technology had changed the world for the better, he observed, but it could also wreak great havoc; there was always the risk that ‘the machine may run away with the pilot’. Human mastery of nature came at a price: in 1921, Europe’s battlefields were still cooling from the heat of industrial warfare and the blood of millions dead. They whispered the terms of this Faustian bargain to anyone who would listen. In the roaring 1920s, not many people were listening.
Europeans wanted better lives and they were certain that scientific progress would provide them. After the devastation of the Great War, rationalisation ruled from London to Moscow: empirical methods and new technologies were adopted to streamline everything from cityscapes to national populations, intellectual work to household chores. Many administrators and activists believed that there was no problem (material, institutional or social) that couldn’t be engineered away.
Sound familiar? Our times are confident, too. We’re optimistic that scientific thinking can explain the world, certain that the solutions to most of our problems are a quick technological fix away. We’ve begun to treat vexing social and political dilemmas as simple design flaws, mistakes to be rectified through a technocratic combination of data science and gadgetry. Progress is no longer a dirty word. The most influential prophets of this creed are in Silicon Valley in California, where, to the tune of billions of dollars, the tech industry tells a Whiggish tale about the digital ascent of humanity: from our benighted times, we’ll emerge into a brighter future, a happier and more open society in which everything has been measured and engineered into a state of perfect efficiency.
And we’re buying it. We’re eager to optimise our workouts, our sleep patterns, our pregnancies, our policing tactics, our taxi services, and our airline pilots. Even the academy is intrigued. From spatial history to the neurohumanities, digital methods are the rage. Lecture halls have been targeted for disruption by massive open online courses (MOOCs). Sometimes it seems as though there’s little that can’t be explained by scientific thinking or improved upon through digital innovation.
Burundi: 100 students seek refuge at US embassy in capital
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — About 100 university students in Burundi are in the U.S. embassy's parking lot seeking refuge amid the country's political turmoil, an embassy statement confirmed Thursday.
The students had been camping at a construction site adjacent to the embassy grounds after their university was closed on April 30 due to political turmoil. Police persuaded them to leave the site and some went to the embassy's parking lot, the statement said. Four people received minor injuries during the incident, the embassy said.
The students said they fear aggression after violent demonstrations against President Pierre Nkurunziza's efforts to run for a third term in elections in July.
Landry Ndikuriyo, a history major at the National University of Burundi, said the police threatened the use of force to evict them from the building site causing a melee as students scampered for safety.
Neocons Urge Embrace of Al Qaeda
Link Submitted by: JtC
Just nine days after the fall of the World Trade Center, George W. Bush announced that he was imposing a radical new policy on virtually the entire globe: “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”
As dramatic as the statement was, just about every phrase was open to question in one form or another. But rather than launching into a long and vigorous debate about the meaning of terrorism or America’s right to impose diktat on the world at large, congressmen turned their minds off and gave Bush a standing ovation.
Today, the same Bush Doctrine is sinking beneath the waves as a growing portion of the punditocracy declares that some forms of terrorism are better than others and that harboring a terrorist may not be so bad if it advances U.S. interests. But once again, the response is not questioning, debate, or even applause, but silence.
The latest evidence of a sea change in establishment thinking is a blog that Ahmed Rashid, a prominent Middle East correspondent, recently published on The New York Review of Books website. Entitled “Why We Need al-Qaeda,” it argues that Al Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate, Al Nusra, are evolving in a more moderate direction in growing contrast to its rival, the super-violent Islamic State. So why not use Al Nusra as a counterforce against both Bashar al-Assad and ISIS?
‘No mandate or moral right to say yes’: Greece rejects ‘generous’ EU bailout proposal
Link Submitted by: JtC
Negotiations over the extension of the Greek bailout will go the wire, after Athens resoundingly rejected the latest conditions for a five-month €15.5bn from its creditors, who are due to meet on Saturday afternoon.
"The creditors' proposal to the Greek government would require introducing deeply recessionary reforms as a condition for the funding, which is totally inadequate, over the five months period," said a statement from the Greek government, which held a meeting lasting well into the late evening, as anti-austerity protesters occupied the square before the parliament building in Athens.
The latest proposals include pension and VAT reforms in exchange for cash from the IMF and the European Central Bank. Most of the disagreements lie over Greek refusals to lower defense spending sufficiently, and privatization of regional airports, according to Eurozone negotiators, who spoke to the Guardian.
"The government does not have a popular mandate, nor a moral right to sign up to a new bailout," briefed an anonymous senior Greek official, after a tempestuous day of talks ended in Brussels.
ASEAN leaders in Thucydides trap before a great moment
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
ASEAN’s leaders are worried about what history tells them about the future of Southeast Asia. The fears about the lessons of history are a discordant note as ASEAN steps up to a great moment in its history—the creation of an economic, political-security and social Community in December 2015.
The President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, stirs headlines by comparing China with Hitler’s Germany. In this metaphor, the Philippines has the role of Czechoslovakia. Aquino ran this line last year to The New York Times and during his recent visit to Japan.
The point about Aquino’s history is not just the Germany–China analogy, but the casting of the US in the Britain/France role—the great powers that stood mute while the small state (the Philippines as Czechoslovakia) got monstered.
Another history that keeps popping up is Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian war 2,500 years ago, the conflict between Athens and Sparta. The Thucydides trap that ASEAN sees is different to the Thucydides trap that worries China and the US. Different aspects of history for different folks.
Chinese parliament reviews BRICS bank
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The emerging markets nations are grabbing more control of their destiny with the foundation of the New Development Bank.
It’s better known as the BRICS Bank, because of its top members, Brazil, Russia, India and China. It will also include South Africa as a member.
The NDB will be an alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, western institutions led by the US, which experts say are unable to fund all the necessary infrastructure investments in emerging economies.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top parliament body, had started reviewing the agreement to create the bank, said Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin according to state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a report on trouble for the Agricultural Workers Organization in Kansas, and a look at the demands of the harvest workers.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Children of Smog in Delhi
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Professor James K. Boyce of PERI says there are solutions to the urgent problem of air pollution in Delhi that has put over 2.2 million school children at risk of irreversible lung damage
Ex-Scientologist Carmen Llywelyn Puts the Church on Blast in Shocking Essay
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
"The reality of Scientology is deceptively hidden and cleverly disguised. When I look at Scientology today, I have to forgive myself for not seeing through the manipulation sooner," she writes. "I've spent the last 13 years keeping Scientology out of my life. It hasn't been easy, but I've realized that the religion is built on a foundation of violence."
Llywelyn says she was introduced to the Church by her ex-husband, whom she married in 1995 after a year of dating. According to her essay, he'd been a Scientologist for about five years before they met, and was eager to bring her into the fold as well.
"Eventually, I started to feel like he was forcing Scientology on me, past the point where I didn't want to go any further," she claims. "He would never stop talking about it. It became a source of contention and I realized that unless I accepted Scientology the way he did and the way he wanted me to, we would most likely cease to know [one] another."
Llywelyn agreed to a tour of Scientology's Celebrity Centre, during which she says she "got a horrible feeling" in her stomach. "As we kept going, it occurred to me how unreal and expensive Scientology was going to be," she recalls, estimating her expenses to be more than $50,000. "To me, Scientology seemed more of a surreal lifestyle for the privileged than a kind of belief system."
Science Seeks to Unlock Marijuana’s Secrets
As the once-vilified drug becomes more accepted, researchers around the world are trying to understand how it works and how it might fight disease.
Link Submitted by: janis b
There’s nothing new about cannabis, of course. It’s been around humankind pretty much forever.
In Siberia charred seeds have been found inside burial mounds dating back to 3000 B.C. The Chinese were using cannabis as a medicine thousands of years ago. Marijuana is deeply American too—as American as George Washington, who grew hemp at Mount Vernon. For most of the country’s history, cannabis was legal, commonly found in tinctures and extracts.
Then came Reefer Madness. Marijuana, the Assassin of Youth. The Killer Weed. The Gateway Drug. For nearly 70 years the plant went into hiding, and medical research largely stopped. In 1970 the federal government made it even harder to study marijuana, classifying it as a Schedule I drug—a dangerous substance with no valid medical purpose and a high potential for abuse, in the same category as heroin. In America most people expanding knowledge about cannabis were by definition criminals.
But now, as more and more people are turning to the drug to treat ailments, the science of cannabis is experiencing a rebirth. We’re finding surprises, and possibly miracles, concealed inside this once forbidden plant. Although marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug, Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, recently expressed interest in what science will learn about marijuana, noting that preliminary data show that “for certain medical conditions and symptoms” it can be “helpful.”
Portland Police issue a very Portland guide ahead of marijuana legalization
Link Submitted by: janis b
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon is just days away from legalizing recreational marijuana, and the Portland Police Bureau is explaining just how much weed you can carry in the most Portland way possible -- by comparing it to a Voodoo doughnut.
You can legally carry an ounce of marijuana in public, or about the size of a voodoo doll doughnut. You can have 8 ounces with you at home, and anything over that is illegal (that's a lot of doughnuts).
If approved, medical marijuana dispensaries could sell to all adults Oct. 1
On a more serious note, you can be arrested for Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants or get a citation for using in a public place. Along those lines, if you do see someone using marijuana in a public place, police urge you NOT to call 911, unless there is an immediate public safety risk.
The Latest: Kansas AG says abortion ruling 'unprecedented'
Link Submitted by: enhydra lutris
8:10 p.m.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says a judge's ruling blocking a new anti-abortion law is based on an unprecedented legal interpretation of the state constitution.
Schmidt said Thursday that his office will study all options for responding to the decision from Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks.
Hendricks ruled that the state constitution protects abortion rights at least as much as the U.S. constitution.
Kansas courts have not previously made that specific finding. Attorneys for both sides said if it stands, Kansas courts could provide more protection for abortion rights than the U.S. Supreme Court.
'Nothing Less Than a Systemic Transformation of Our World'
Ahead of UN climate talks in Paris later this year, the global climate justice movement is making its demands perfectly clear. The people are leading, say signatories to a bold statement, and governments must now follow.
Link Submitted by: JtC
"Nothing less than a systemic transformation of our societies, our economies, and our world will suffice to solve the climate crisis and close the ever-increasing inequality gap."
That is the key message of a new document—titled The People's Test on Climate 2015—endorsed by an unprecedented coalition of civil society organizations from around the world and sent Friday to world leaders ahead of United Nations climate talks next week and the widely-anticipated UNFCCC's Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP21) at the end of the year.
The intent of the new document—shared in advance with Common Dreams and signed by thirteen leaders representing social movements of climate-impacted communities from the global South as well as faith, labor, environmental, and anti-poverty groups representing tens of millions of members from around the world—is to make it "as crystal clear as possible" to the leaders of world governments what the global climate justice movement is demanding in the lead-up to Paris, as well as its expectations for the resulting agreement.
"The scale of transformation the world needs to address the climate crisis, as well as the urgency with which this transformation must happen, is huge," the signatories to the document state in a cover letter.
AI: will the machines ever rise up?
From Ex-Machina to Terminator Genisys, ‘synths’ and robots have invaded our popular culture. But how real is the reel depiction of artificial intelligence?
Link Submitted by: JtC
The harried parents in one family in the Channel 4 drama Humans are divided about having a robot called Anita.
The father is delighted with the extra help; the mother unnerved and threatened. The teenage daughter, bright and hardworking, gives up at school after wondering why she would spend seven years to become a doctor, when a “Synth” could upload the skills in as many seconds. The teenage son, of course, is preoccupied with the sexual possibilities.
The thriller has become the biggest home-made drama on Channel 4 for more than two decades, according to viewing figures published this week, and is the latest to explore what has been described as perhaps the greatest existential threat the human race has ever faced, artificial intelligence: the idea that computers will start thinking for themselves and not much like what they see when they cast their eyes on their creators.
The humanoid robots in Humans are not portrayed as good or evil but are dropped into suburbia, where the crises they cause are domestic: disrupting relationships, employment aspirations, and feelings of freedom.
Florida man dies from ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria contracted in Mississippi
Link Submitted by: JtC
A deadly bacteria from Gulf of Mexico salt waters, one labeled a “flesh-eating virus,” has claimed its fourth victim: a Florida man who contracted the illness while swimming in Mississippi.
The Florida man died on Thursday after exposure to saltwater during a visit to Mississippi, according to health officials. His name and age have been withheld under the state’s privacy laws.
Although it has been called the “flesh eating virus,” the bacteria, called Vibrio vulnificus, can be contracted when eating raw seafood, seawater, or through a skin wound, said the Florida Health Department.
“It is always a concern from year to year, especially with extreme heat,” Anne Gayle Ellis, Florida Department of Health spokesperson, told WFLA NBC News Channel 8. She told the network that infections are rare.
Railroads use new oil train rule to fight transparency
Link Submitted by: JtC
WASHINGTON — Railroads may have found a new weapon in their fight to keep information about oil train shipments from the public: a federal rule that was supposed to increase transparency.
The U.S. Department of Transportation insists that its May 1 final rule on oil trains, which mostly addresses an outdated tank car design, does not support the railroads’ position, nor was it intended to leave anyone in the dark.
But in recent court filings in Maryland, two major oil haulers have cited the department’s new rule to justify their argument that no one except emergency responders should know what routes the trains use or how many travel through each state during a given week.
Those details have been publicly available in most states for a year, though some sided with the railroads and refused to release them. The periodic reports have helped state and local officials with risk assessments, emergency planning and firefighter training.
The Evening Greens
Tonight's Greens submitted by: enhydra lutris
Wildfires blister Alaska with increased frequency, intensity
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska residents endure the nation's harshest winters for the reward of beautiful summer days with sunshine that lingers until midnight.
But increasingly, large wildfires have marred the pristine outdoors, filling the skies with black smoke and forcing people who live near forests to flee for safety.
A study released Wednesday reinforces a trend revealed by state records, showing that wildfires have been blistering Alaska with greater frequency and intensity.
The findings have left forest managers and climate scientists to try to explain why and predict what's next. "Fire seasons seem to be starting earlier and lasting longer," said Tim Mowry, a state Division of Forestry spokesman.
Republicans push back against proposed dietary guidelines
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans are pushing back against proposed dietary guidelines that urge Americans to consider the environment when deciding what foods to eat.
House and Senate spending bills say the guidelines must focus only on nutrition and diet. That's a clear effort to thwart a recommendation by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that eating a diet higher in vegetables and other plant-based foods is better for the environment than eating a diet based more on foods from animals.
The advice from a government advisory panel of independent doctors and nutrition experts has raised the ire of the meat industry.
The dietary guidelines come out every five years, and the government advice informs everything from school lunches and food package labels to advice from your doctor. The departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services are expected to issue a final version by year's end based on the advisory committee's February recommendations.
Congress probing California oil spill that blackened beaches
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A congressional committee Thursday opened a probe into an oil pipeline rupture on the Central California coast that spread to the Pacific Ocean and washed up goo on beaches as far as 100 miles away.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked operator Plains All American Pipeline for detailed information on maintenance of the failed line, including how it addressed corrosion, and inspection records for five years.
The panel also wants the company to explain what it did in the hours leading up to the break near Santa Barbara, and how it reported the problem. The spill was estimated at up to 101,000 gallons.
The Texas-based company has faced criticism for how long it took to relay information to the federal government on the break, even though its internal planning documents repeatedly stress the importance of notifying the government of a leak as quickly as possible.
Oslo creates world's first 'highway' to protect endangered bees
From flower emblazoned cemeteries to rooftop gardens and balconies, Norway's capital Oslo is creating a "bee highway" to protect endangered pollinators essential to food production.
"We are constantly reshaping our environment to meet our needs, forgetting that other species also live in it," Agnes Lyche Melvaer, head of the Bybi, an environmental group supporting urban bees, which is leading the project.
"To correct that we need to return places to them to live and feed," she explained, sitting on a bench in a lush city centre square bursting with early Nordic summer growth.
With its sunflowers, marigolds and other nectar-bearing flowers planted by bee-loving locals and school children, Abel's Garden was until recently covered only in grass but is now a floral "feeding station" for bees.
4 Times Humans Used an Invasive Species to Defeat Another Invasive Species
The forests of Denver, Colo., are currently under attack by an invasive insect species from Asia (see #4). So what is the scientists’ plan to stop this assault on trees? They’re going with the controversial move of introducing a second invasive species to destroy the first one.
If it sounds like that children’s song about the old lady who swallowed the spider to catch the fly, that’s because it basically is. Unleashing a second non-native species might help to eradicate the first species, but it can also unleash a series of other consequences. Previous experiments in this invasive species vs. invasive species tactic have worked out with various degrees of success, as these four examples will show:
1. Ash Whiteflies vs. Wasps
In the late 1980s, ash whiteflies started taking over southern California. The pests are known to devastate fruit crops, and once their population grew, they took a real toll on the region’s citrus production.
Initially, scientists thought the whiteflies had no natural predators, until researchers discovered that certain wasps loved to feast on the whiteflies larvae. Accordingly, entomologists released hundreds of wasps throughout the area to prevent so many whiteflies from hatching. Research published in the California Agriculture journal later deemed the experiment a “success” since it helped to decrease the populations of four (out of eight) species of whiteflies that were dominating in southern California.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Why Are Churches Using Creepy Face Recognition Technology?
Bernie Sanders Was for Full Gay Equality 40 Years Ago
Drug War Game Changer: Is California Going to Legalize Marijuana?
Study: Democracy Declining in More Than Half of U.N. Member States
Vatican Officially Recognizes Palestine as a State by Signing Treaty
Hellraisers Journal: Delegates from Agricultural Workers' Organization being sent to harvest fields.
Only One Choice For Democracy
She tried
A Little Night Music
Eddie Shaw - Blues Dues
Eddie Shaw - Operator
Eddie Shaw - Midnight Blues
Eddie Shaw - Dunkin' Donut Woman
Eddie Shaw - Riding High
Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang - Out Of Bad Luck
Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang - Your Wife Is Cheating On Us
Eddie Shaw and the Wolfgang - Greedy Man
Eddie Shaw & The Wolf Gang - Fannie Mae Jones & Come Home Baby
Eddie Shaw & Abb Locke - For You My Love
Eddie Shaw & The Wolfgang - Rock This House
Eddie Shaw - Walkin' in the Moonlight
George Thorogood w/Eddie Shaw - Howlin For My Baby